neocorsten * leader is a fake

Diary

As you may already know, I have relocated to the UK and to be honest, I am very happy in this wonderful country.

I drove from South of France to Coublevie in the Alps, where my girlfriend’s family lives. They are great people. When I look around I start to be acquainted of the chance I have to have so great parents-in-law. I have always been so well welcomed and love to be there, all together. The same between my girlfriend and my parents. How perfect and easy life can be sometimes.

After a long weekend with them I drove to Paris with my car. I missed driving my car so much!!! Indeed, I didn’t have it in Paris and Paris without a car is … a prison. Well the difference is that you don’t have to pay money to be in prison.
Then I had to definitely live my flat which was situated at 10 meters from the famous “Place des Vosges” in “Le Marais”. It was a really nice place. Gays, Jewish and English people, mainly composed the population there. My two favorite places in Paris are definitely this one and Sèvres-Babylone near le Bon Marché. Posh areas. Along the Boulevard Raspail and the “Rue de Sèvres” you can find some nice stores like Crockett and Jones, TOD’S, J.M. Weston, Paul Smith, Manfield for the shoes and clothes. There is also “La Maison du Chocolat” just near the Hotel Lutetia where you can find VERY expensive chocolates.

Back to the Place des Vosges. There you have the famous Rue des Francs Bourgeois with its Kiehl’s store where I used to buy my Shaving creams (I definitely recommend it!!! Mine are: Ultimate Brushless Shave Cream Blue Eagle Goggle Goffer formula and White Eagle Hair-Raizer formula for the shave creams and Soothing, Nourishing face cream and The Ultimate Men’s After-Shave Balm & Moisturizer which is lovely). You can also find very nice shoes at Rosewood in “la rue des rosiers” which is a typical Jewish street. Eat some falafels, have an ice cream at Amorino, go and have a drink at the Lizard Lounge (they have Magners and the best burgers EVER) and if you want some tea, you go to “Marriage Frères” which is located in the same street as the Lizard Lounge (18, Rue Bourg Tibourg, 75004 PARIS).

I used to work in the headquarters of AXA which are located avenue Matignon. My daily route was to take the metro M1 and then go to les Champs-Elysées and then walk down to AXA. Considering the fact that I hate Paris’ metro, this was ok but I would have preferred not to use it. So everyday I was walking on the most beautiful avenue of the world and I still don’t understand why this avenue is the most beautiful of the world. AXA headquarters are stunning and I regret to not have taken pictures of some rooms there. It is an incredibly rich company, very successful in an easy sector: Insurance!! In a nutshell, you tune the rates so you make good profits and you count the money that goes in. Obviously it isn’t that easy and some great actuarial brains are involved in the process but you understood the business model.
For lunch I used to go to the “Sushi Shop” at “Rue de la Boetie”. In this nice sushi self service you can often meet some popular people …

Anyway, I had some more miles to do. I then went to Boulogne on a very foggy day. I called some friends, replaced my windshield wipers by some new Valeo ones and embarked at 1h30 p.m on the ferry. It was very quick to be on the other side of the channel. 55 minutes later I was in Dover, in the United Kingdom! Exited about the feeling of driving on the wrong side of the road (just kidding some English visitors lol) I was there, driving slowly through the way out of the dock. There it was, my first English roundabout! Easy, too easy. I was nearly disappointed to see that it wasn’t that amazing to drive on the left side. The landscape is fantastic, the roads are very good and the drivers are better than the ones we have in France.

There I am, living in the UK. I am enjoying to no more live in Paris and re-discover the pleasure of some green land. If I had to resume my feeling in a word, it would be FREEDOM.